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Some news outlets, including Fox, have been
wildly spreading fears about Ebola. As an example of both good and bad ways
that the media covers science, let’s take a look at a recent clip from Fox News
in which they interview Dr. David Sanders about the possibility of Ebola virus mutating to become airborne-transmissible
(right now it is only spread by direct contact!)

Their story is titled "Purdue professor says Ebola 'primed' to go airborne." Here is a link to the video. I’ll
start off with the good things:
1) Dr. Sanders did a good job explaining that Ebola is not airborne right now,
but there is a "non-zero" probability that Ebola might mutate to
infect the lungs and become air transmissible. And this probability increases
as more people are infected. 2) The newscasters
did a good job of accurately recapping what he was explaining without blowing
it out of proportion. Now for
some bad things: 1)
Quite obviously, the scare-you-into-clicking-on-it title. First o…

Everybody loves science museums. Their fun and interactive
way of presenting science reconnects you with your childhood self, when you
were curious, when you wondered, and when you were so amazed that you could
only manage to say, “Wow!” But what is it like to work at a science museum?
On Wednesday, we hosted Jayatri Das, PhD,
to describe her career engaging the public with science as the Chief
Bioscientist at The Franklin Institute. As you would expect, her transition
from the lab into the museum was cultivated by a strong interest in outreach
and teaching. After receiving her PhD from Princeton, she gained experience as
a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow developing programs for the Marian Koshland Science Museum in Washington, DC.
Following a short post-doctoral appointment, she landed a position with The
Franklin Institute, an opportunity that she partly ascribes to fortuitous
timing, as PhD level positions at museums are rare.
In her job she embraces a new…